Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King is
probably the most famous person associated with the civil rights movement. King
was active from the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 to 1956 until
his murder in April 1968. To many Martin Luther King epitomised what the civil
rights campaign was all about and he brought massive international cover to the
movement.

Martin Luther King was born
in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15th, 1929. The church was very much a part of
his life as both his father and grandfather had been Baptist preachers. They
themselves were involved in the civil rights movement. By the standards of the
time, King came from a reasonably comfortable background and after graduating
from college in 1948 he was not sure about which profession to join. He
considered a career in medicine and law but rejected both and joined the Baptist
Church. He studied at the Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. It was
while studying here, that King learned about the non-violent methods used by
Mahatma Gandhi against the British in India. King became convinced that such
methods would be of great value to the civil rights movement.

After leaving Crozer, King
got married to Coretta Scott. He became a Baptist pastor at the Dexter Avenue
Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He was in Montgomery at the start of the
Montgomery Bus Boycott. He was appointed the president of the Montgomery
Improvement Association which was created during the boycott and he became a
prominent leader of the boycott - even driving some of the black community to
work as the buses had been boycotted. King was arrested for starting a boycott
(an arrestable offence as a result of an obscure law that was very rarely used)
and fined $500 with $500 costs. His house was fire-bombed and others involved
with MIA were also intimidated - but by the end of 1956, segregation had been
lifted in Montgomery and bus integration had been introduced.

Another result of the
boycott was the establishment of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC). This organisation was committed to the use of non-violence and its motto
was "Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed." Martin
Luther King was elected its president. The importance of the SCLC's
involvement was simply because the churches that represented the black
population in the South were potent organisations. Now that they had combined
their power and influence, this power was multiplied.

Not long after the
conclusion of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King wrote 'Stride Towards Freedom'.
This was read by some students at Greensboro,
North Carolina and they started the student sit-in of the Woolworth's lunch
counter which had a policy of not serving African-Americans. Though the students were
frequently abused and assaulted, they never fought back. The same tactic - a
non-violent response to violence - was also used by the Freedom Riders in their
campaign to desegregate transport.

Buoyed by this response,
King toured the country making speeches and urging more and more people to get
involved in the civil rights movement. King had also noted the economic power
that the black community had - as was seen in Montgomery.
He tried to get communities to use companies/individual shop keepers etc. who
were sympathetic to the civil rights campaign but also to boycott those who were
not.

King also placed great
faith in the power of the vote. Many black Americans in the South still faced
enormous problems doing something as basic as registering to vote such was the
intimidation they faced. In Mississippi, 42% of the state's population was black
but only 2% registered to vote in the 1960 election. However, more and more did
register throughout the South and in 1960, their support (70%) helped to give
the Democrat J F Kennedy the
narrowest of victories over Richard Nixon.

In 1963, Kennedy proposed
his civil rights bill. To persuade Congress to support this bill, King, with
other civil rights leaders, organised the legendary March on Washington. Baynard
Rustin was given overall control of the march.

The march - officially the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom - was a major success. Held on August
28th, 1963, it attracted between 250,000 and 400,000 people. The final speaker
was Martin Luther King and it was here that he made his legendary 'I have a
Dream' speech which was heard throughout the world and did a huge amount to
publicise the civil rights movement in America across the world. Congress did
accept Kennedy's civil rights
bill and it became the 1964 Civil Rights Act
- a far reaching act that many saw as a fitting tribute to the assassinated
Kennedy.

King then moved on to a
bill that would guarantee the voting rights of the black community in America.
This led to the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

From this time on, King
became more and more concerned with the poverty of those in America - both black
and white. For whatever reason, King became more radical - or so it seemed to
those who distrusted him. He used the word "revolution" in some of his
speeches and he voiced his opposition to the Vietnam
War. King also became
involved in trade union issues.

King had clearly made
enemies in his rise to fame. At the most basic level, the KKK did what they
could to tarnish his name in the South. However, it was the work done by the FBI
under the leadership of J Edgar Hoover that did most damage. Rooms where King
stayed during his travels were bugged and recordings of his alleged sexual
improprieties were made. The FBI released such details to the press.

On April 4th, 1968, Martin
Luther King was shot dead by an assassin. His death sparked off riots in many
cities and 46 people were killed during these. In March 1969, James Earl Ray was
found guilty of King's murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison. Many years
after starting his sentence, Ray claimed that he was innocent and that he could
not have killed King.